An Investigation into the Wi-Fi Protected Setup PIN of the Linksys WRT160N v2

Authors

Symon Aked, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Christopher Bolan, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Murray Brand, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publisher

SRI Security Research Institute, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia

Comments

10th Australian Information Security Management Conference, Novotel Langley Hotel, Perth, Western Australia, 3rd-5th December, 2012

Abstract

Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is a method of allowing a consumer to set up a secure wireless network in a user friendly way. However, in December 2011 it was discovered that a brute force attack exists that reduces the WPS key space from 108 to 104+103. This resulted in a proof of concept tool that was able to search all possible combinations of PINs within a few days.This research presents a methodology to test wireless devices to determine their susceptibility to the external registrar PIN authentication design vulnerability. A number of devices were audited, and the Linksys WRT160N v2 router was selected to be examined in detail. The results demonstrate that the router is highly susceptible to having its WPN PIN brute forced. It also details that even with WPS disabled in the router configuration, WPS was still active and the PIN was equally vulnerable.

DOI

10.4225/75/57b5554fcd8d5